The Baptism

Today was Gabriella's baptism. It was such a wonderful day. I was completely stressed when we got to the church because the main church where the later service normally is held had an issue with the heat and it was apparently freezing in there(don't laugh,the 40's are pretty cold for Florida). So, they decided to hold the service in the historic chapel. Now, don't get me wrong, I just love the chapel. It is a beautiful white wooden chapel that was built in 1885. Stupid me forgot to take pictures outside the church. I will get a picture and post it later. Ferdy and I got married in the chapel 12 years ago and I am a wedding coordinator for the church and do many a wedding in it. But, I was worried about how small it is knowing we had about 20 or so people coming plus the regular parishioners. The church holds 95 VERY close friends. About 85-90 comfortably. We are a small congregation, but it is Advent Sunday and I worried more than the usual crowd would show up. And I knew they couldn't reserve the pews for everyone like in the large sanctuary. So, I was pretty stressed over the logistics.

I needn't have worried. The church was comfortably full and in the end, it was pretty awesome to have Gabriella baptized in the church we got married in. In the car on the way home, Ferdy's mom said to me that God knows what He is doing and she was right.

Gabriella was asleep for most of the baptism itself as it was her naptime. She did wake up at the end to be able to greet the congregation.

It is a tradition in Puerto Rico to have some kind of small wooden cross that is blessed during the Baptism and is kept in the child's room. Ferdy's mom brought this one for her.

Ferdy's mom also made the dress and it was absolutely gorgeous. The pictures don't do it justice. I will probably try to take a picture of just the dress so that the detail can be seen. It is white linen with lace trim and long white ribbons.



This is a picture of all of the family

The cake was just gorgeous. It was even more beautiful than what I imagined when I ordered it.

As you can see, Ferdy decided since everyone was together that we would celebrate my birthday which is coming up December 4. Sarah got me my favorite - White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake - mmmmmmmm. Pay no mind to the huge number on the cake!


Of course, we had wayyyyy too much food. We had a traditional Puerto Rican Christmas and special occasion feast of roast pork, rice with pigeon peas and pasteles(the closest thing would be a tamale, but not really like that as they are made with plaintains or yuca, not corn meal). We also had various other yummy snacks and I'm sure nobody went home hungry. We'll be noshing for days.